Hinged cap needle assemblies are well known and are designed to cap a needle following use to prevent inadvertent needle sticks. The combination needle hub and needle is typically used with a syringe. The hinged cap may engage the needle hub via a collar to convert the standard needle hub into a hinged cap safety needle device. The needle hub and needle may instead be incorporated with the cap via a hinge in a unitary or integrated construction.
An embodiment of a prior art hinged cap device comes with a removable temporary cap mounted over the needle in a packaging unit, which differs from the hinged cap for capping needle following use. This has the disadvantage that the hinged cap must be set off at an angle from the removeable cap and thus increases the size of the package. This in turn has negative consequences for the whole distribution chain. After the hinged cap device is removed from the packaging unit, the hub of the hinged cap is placed onto a syringe tip and the temporary cap removed and discarded. The needle is then used, such as to draw a sample or deliver an injection, and then subsequently capped with the hinged cap, which has means for preventing re-opening of the cap to deter re-use.
Recapping is a common procedure for periods between drawing up fluids into a syringe and administering injections through the needle. The recapping procedure can occasionally cause needle sticks since users sometime misalign the needles with the openings on the caps. Injuries can also occur after an injection and prior to the discarding of the needles. Needle sticks can be painful, but can also cause great inconvenience because all needle sticks must be reported. Also, since needles related to needle sticks must be discarded, medications contained within the syringes are unnecessarily wasted. Furthermore, fluids linked to these “clean” type of needle sticks can cause injuries and adverse reactions.